Good morning. Our text this morning will begin
in Acts chapter 18. Acts chapter 18. I've titled this message, Fellow Laborers. Fellow Laborers. Let's ask our
Lord's blessings on our time together. Our Heavenly Father, We come into thy holy presence,
thanking you that we have the acceptance of thy dear son
as our substitute, our sin bearer, all our satisfaction before thee.
Lord, we know that left to ourselves, we could never approach you. of what great hope and comfort
we have in knowing that thy dear son is our forerunner, that when
his flesh was rent, that the holies of holies was opened,
that his blood was placed on the mercy seat, and that here
thou has promised to meet with us. We pray, Lord, that you would
send your spirit and power to enlighten the eyes of our understanding,
that you would increase our faith, that you would cause, Lord, those
who remain strangers to your grace to find their hope this
day in Christ, that as the Lord Jesus is lifted up, you would
call us to him and enable us to set our affections on him.
For it's in his name we pray, amen. You have your Bibles open to
Acts chapter 18, how oftentimes we read in God's word that we
are to comfort one another with these words. Scripture is rich
with admonitions for us to edify or build up or encourage one
another in the faith. Our faith and our boldness and
our hope and our love and our courage all come from the Lord
as iron sharpeneth iron. The Lord is pleased to use and
strengthen these graces through the fellowship of the saints.
And that ought to be greatly encouraged in the church, and
I hope this morning that it will be. The Lord has not left us
to ourselves. He's promised himself to never
leave us nor forsake us. And not only that, but he's placed
us in the body of Christ, whereby each member of the body is an
encouragement to the other members of the body. The Lord Jesus Christ
went to the cross all by himself. was forsaking of men and forsaken
of his father, that we be not left to ourselves. We find in our text in Acts chapter
18, you think if there's any man in the word of God that did
not need the encouragement of other believers To be bold, it
would have been the Apostle Paul. And yet, in the last few chapters
of the Book of Acts, we've read how the Apostle Paul was threatened
to the edge of his life in Thessalonica, in Berea, in Philippi, in Athens,
and he has had to flee. out of danger for his life, and
now he is in Corinth. And like would be the case for
each one of us, he's thinking, you know, gotta go through this
again. And so in Acts chapter 18, in verse
nine, the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, and
said to him, be not afraid. Now, the only reason that the
Lord would have to say to the apostle Paul, be not afraid,
is that he was afraid. And it's understandable why he
would be. You would be, I would be. He had reason to be afraid. Yet the Lord tells him, be not
afraid. I think I mentioned this last Sunday, 365 times in the
Bible, God says, be not afraid, fear not. Every day of the week, we need
to be reminded that the Lord has promised to be with us and
to, to, Protect us and provide for us. Look at verse 10, for
I am with thee and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for
I have much people in this city. You preach the gospel boldly. Now, if you back up with me into
that same chapter. Look with me at verse. At verse
4, Paul reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and he persuaded
the Jews and the Greeks. And when Silas and Timotheus
were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit and
testified to the Jews that Jesus, now notice that little verb was
is in italics, really the better The better explanation, the better
definition, the better translation here is Jesus is the Christ. That's what he was declaring,
and that's what we declare, that Jesus, the sovereign son of God,
has come in order to accomplish the salvation of his people.
And he came in the full power of the Spirit of God as the Messiah,
as the Christ, to put away the sins of his people, to satisfy
God's divine justice, to establish righteousness, and to accomplish
our salvation. That's what Christ means. Anything less than that is another
Christ, another Jesus. And so, notice that he's pressed
in the spirit and is emboldened to preach the gospel when Titus
and Timothy come from Macedonia. Titus and Timothy were Paul's
co-laborers. They were traveling partners
in the ministry of preaching the gospel and they're mentioned
many times in the Bible. Timothy, just to give you a few
places where Paul refers to Timothy, he calls him in Philippians 1.1,
he calls him a bond servant of Jesus Christ, bound not only
to Christ, but bound to the apostle Paul. He calls him a brother
and minister of God in 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. In Romans chapter
16, he says that he's my fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ. In 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse
2, he calls him a true son in the faith. Timothy and Titus
both heard the gospel from the Apostle Paul. And from that day, they traveled
with him and encouraged him and he them and preached with him. In second Timothy chapter one
in verse two, Paul says that he's my beloved and faithful
son in the Lord. You see the affection and the
encouragement that these men were one to the other. And in
Philippians chapter two, verse 22, he says, as a son with his
father, He has served with me in the gospel. So there's a great
bond between these men as they serve together. And we're reminded
by this of how the Lord uses the church and the fellowship
of the saints to embolden us in the preaching of the gospel.
How many times we... Turn with me to Philippians chapter one. We'll begin here. Philippians
chapter one. We'll begin reading in verse
12. But I would that you should understand, brethren, that the
things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the
furtherance of the gospel, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest
in all the palaces, in all the palace, and in all of the places,
so many of the brethren in the Lord are waxing confident by
my bonds and are much more bold to speak the word without fear."
Oh, when God When a believer is faithful in adversity, it's
an encouragement to the other believers to remain faithful. Here, the Lord sends Silas and
Timothy to be an encouragement to Paul to preach Jesus as the
Christ. Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 2. Look at verse one. For yourselves,
brethren, you know our entrance in unto you that it was not in
vain, but even after that we had suffered before and were
shamefully entreated, as you know at Philippi, we were bold
in our God to speak unto you the gospel without contention. Oh, they had just come from Philippi. Thessalonica. They had been run
out of town and threatened for their lives, and Paul's reminding
them of how he said, what is he doing? He's encouraging them
to remain faithful by his own trials and adversity.
Isn't that what we read in Hebrews chapter 11? Hebrews chapter 11
begins with a with Abel standing for the gospel
and it costing him his life and goes through Abraham and Sarah
and Jacob and ends with the prophets. And then in chapter 12, verse
one, what do we read? Turn to me there. Turn with me
to Hebrews chapter 12. The Lord gives us this long litany
of Old Testament believers that suffered as a result of the gospel. And then he concludes this chapter
with this verse, wherefore, wherefore seeing that you are also compassed
about with so great a cloud of witnesses, Let us lay aside every
weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us. Let us run
the race with patience, looking unto Jesus, who the author and
the finisher of our faith. What's the Lord saying? We're
in this together. You know, when the Lord sent
the disciples out, he sent them out two by two, that they might
be not just a confirmation of the witness, but an encouragement
to one another. So in verse two of Hebrews chapter
12, seeing that we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,
all believers have suffered the same opposition from the world
because of the gospel, that we are looking unto Jesus who the
author and the finisher of, and notice the word our is in italics,
The Lord Jesus Christ is the author and the finisher of faith. He is the one who gives us our
faith, and he's the one who keeps us in the faith. And it is his
faithfulness that stands as our righteousness before God. And
so our faith is given to us that we might rest the hope of our
salvation in his faithfulness. And that is all of God. Oh, what a glorious gospel. What a glorious God we serve.
Salvation truly is of the Lord. And so he says, we're to look
unto the Lord Jesus Christ, who the author and finisher of faith,
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame and is sat down at the right hand of the
throne of God, all by himself. All by himself, forsaken of his
own father, he bore the sins of his people and satisfied God's
divine justice. And then he sends his disciples
out. For consider him that endured
such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be
wearied and faint in your minds. You have not yet resisted under
blood, striving against sin. And then he goes on to say, don't
forget the exhortations. Let's just read these verses.
Look at verse five. For if you have forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as children, my son despised not thou chastening
of the Lord, nor faint when thou rebuked of him. For whom the
Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourges every son whom he receiveth.
If you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. And what son is he? And the father
chasteneth not. Here's part of the, of the growth
in grace is the loving, merciful hand of our Heavenly Father who
is faithful to correct us, and often He uses us one another
in that. Look over in chapter 13. He speaks
of He speaks of those times, well,
let's just, and maybe it's in chapter 12, but he speaks of
those times when they first believed the gospel and that they were
persecuted as a result of their affiliation with the Apostle
Paul. And he's encouraging them to remain faithful, to remember
the trials that they had suffered. How oftentimes, We see in the
scriptures where a man thinks he's all alone in the gospel,
and with that loneliness comes despair. In 1 Kings chapter 19,
when Elijah stood up against the prophets of Baal on Mount
Carmel and And the Lord sends fire from heaven and consumes
the sacrifice. What a glorious picture of the
accomplished work of Christ on Calvary's cross, consuming the
fire of God's wrath and satisfying God's justice. And then he orders
that the prophets of Baal be put to death. And then he hears
that Jezebel's after him. And where does Elijah go to? He goes to Mount Horeb. That's
the mountain of the law. He's trying to find comfort in
the law. Isn't that what we do? We feel like we're all alone.
We try to find something in our lives that will give us some
hope of salvation and of God's faithfulness. And our Lord, when
he finds, when he finds comfort, When Elijah is at Mount Horeb,
he says to Elijah, he says, Elijah, what are you doing here? What
are you doing here? Why'd you come here? And you
remember what Elijah said? Two times in 1 Kings chapter
19, Elijah said, I, even I only, have remained faithful unto thee. Elijah thought he was all by
himself. And what'd the Lord say to Elijah? Elijah, I've reserved
unto myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal in
Israel. You go back. You're not alone
in this. There's other men that have not
bowed the knee to Baal. What an encouragement to Elijah. Elijah goes and he anoints Elisha,
as his successor in the preaching of the gospel. Here's what our
Lord's telling us in this passage of scripture. Timothy and Titus
came from Macedonia, and at that point, Paul was pressed in the
spirit to be bold in preaching the gospel. Proverbs chapter 18, verse one
says, he who willingly separates himself from others, quarrels
with all sound wisdom. Yeah, men do that, don't they?
What happened to Thomas? Thomas should have been with
the other disciples in that upper room. They were all there. Everyone
was there but Thomas. And then our Lord appears and
when Thomas comes back, he says, I will not believe unless I see
and touch him. Thomas suffered for not having
been with the other believers. David, the scripture says, when
kings ought to have been with their armies at battle, David
stayed behind. in Jerusalem, and that's when
he got in trouble, isn't it? That's when he saw Bathsheba,
and everything went south after that. David should have been
with the men that were fighting in the battle. Brethren, we are
in a warfare in this world, and our Lord is encouraging us time
and time again that we are that we're in this together and that
we're to edify one another, build one another up in this most holy
faith, encouraging each other in the
preaching that Jesus is the Christ. He is the Christ. God's people might have some
differences non-essential issues, but when it comes to the gospel,
they have one mind, one spirit, and they work together in declaring
this glorious gospel of his free grace. Turn with me to Romans
chapter 15. The apostle Paul had to be encouraged
with other men, such as Titus and Timothy. And he had to be
told by the Lord, don't be afraid. You remain faithful. And they encouraged one another. Chapter 15 of Romans. beginning at verse one. We then
that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and
not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his
neighbor for his good to the edification. Now this word edification
literally translated means to build a house. It's a conjunction
of two words, to build and house. And that's what we're doing.
We saw We saw last Sunday how the Apostle Paul was a tent maker
and how he's building the house of God and Aquila and Priscilla
assisting him in that ministry. That's what we're doing. That's
what the Lord's doing. He's building up his house and
all on one foundation. As our Lord is telling you, let each man esteem one another
more highly than himself. Let him encourage the brethren
in this. This is the work. This is the
only work that really matters with any eternal significance
is the preaching of the gospel and the building up of the house
of God. You there in Romans, turn back with me to Romans chapter
14. Look at verse 17, for the kingdom
of God is not meat and drink. Now, Paul's talking about going
into the marketplace and buying meat that had been sacrificed
to idols. Now, we don't have that problem.
We can go to the grocery store. We never have to look at a cut
of meat and wonder if it's been sacrificed to a pagan god, but
the early believers did. And some of the believers, their
conscience were wounded by that. And so the Lord's saying that
the gospel is not meat and drink, it's righteousness and peace
and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth
Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men. But let us therefore
follow after the things which make for peace, and the things
with which one may edify another. build one another up, encourage
one another in this gospel work. It is the work that God has given
his people to do. Go back who made it first to
chapter 18 of Acts. Verse five, and when Silas and
Timothy were come from Macedonia, Paul was encouraged, he was edified,
he was built up, he was emboldened. He was emboldened by the encouragement
of Timothy and Silas. and pressed in the spirit and
testified clearly unapologetically to the Jews that this Jesus is
the Christ of God. He is the Messiah. He is the
anointed one. He is the one that God sent for
the salvation of his people. In verse 6, and when they opposed
themselves and blasphemed, he shook his raiment and said unto
them, your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean from henceforth.
I will go to the Gentiles. I'll go to those who, who need
a savior. Gentile dogs who are not righteous
in their, in themselves. And he said, These Jews weren't
interested in hearing about Jesus as Christ. They had a righteousness
in their own knowledge and in their own works. And he departed thence in verse
seven and entered into a certain man's house named Justice, one
that worshiped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.
And Christus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on
the Lord with all his house. And many of the Corinthians,
Corinthians hearing, believed and were baptized. And here's
the, here's always the outcome of the preaching of the gospel.
Some are going to believe and some are not. And those that
not are opposing themselves. Spiritual suicide to not believe
the gospel, to reject Christ. And that's when the Lord had
to speak to Paul in a vision and say to him, Paul, don't be
afraid. Don't be afraid. You keep preaching Christ. I've
got many people in this city. The Lord's going to make sure
that all his elect hear the gospel and come to faith in Christ.
and he's gonna use the church to accomplish that end. Our heavenly father, we thank
you for your word and we pray, Lord, that you would enable us
to remain faithful in encouraging one another to lift up Christ and to look
to Christ and to be faithful to the gospel. For it's in his
name we pray, amen.